Publishing Genius is excited to be participating in the Fall Lit Ball this October, hosted by the Georgia Review in Athens, GA. There is an amazing program of writers on the bill. There’s also a bookfair, which we’ll be tabling at along with 421 Atlanta.
The festival commemorates 70 years of the Georgia Review. That’s a long time! It runs October 7 and 8, with most of the events on the 7th. It’s at a place called the Foundry, which is part of a hotel called The Graduate, which is a place Amy and I stayed at for Amy’s birthday because we got a good deal on Hotel Tonight.
Here are some highlights of the festival:
Stacy Szymaszek will read
“Szymaszek’s work encompasses a variety of voices and personas, eros, and queer identity,” says the Poetry Foundation. I read her book Emptied of All Ships and found it to be spare and expansive (I think) and very memorable. I went to her going away party in Milwaukee (it was nuts, I got a sailor hat), saw her at the Poetry Project, and heard her read at Normals in Baltimore. After the reading she told me I looked very confused, and I was. Now I’m looking forward to another chance to hear her work, and to a separate event where she and Simone White discuss the 40 year history of the Poetry Project.
Gina Abelkop will host a small press event
There will be readings and so on, coordinated by Gina Abelkop who runs Birds of Lace, a chapbook press in Athens. Nothing has been announced yet. I was just checking out the BoL website and it looks like there is an amazing slate of books from this year, including new work from Myriam Gurba (I loved her Future Tense chapbook), Sade Murphy, Lily Hoang and more. And you can read the out of print backlist here. This reading will be worth checking out, and so is the website.
Bianca Stone and Sharon Olds will read
Bianca Stone co-runs Monk Books, “An exclusive, limited edition, artisan press” which put out one of my favorite chapbooks of all time, The Formal Field of Kissing by Bernadette Meyer. Bianca also illustrated Antigonick by Anne Carson, and she draws those insane poetry comics that are packaged like classic comic books of yore. Here’s one of her comics, “Losing It,” at the Poetry Foundation website.
And everyone knows who Sharon Olds is because she won a Pulitzer Prize.
The bookfair is on Saturday the 8th
That’s where I’ll be, probably giving away books, like I always do, because I get so depressed trying to sell books to people’s faces, God help me. Other participating presses are, to name a few, 421 Atlanta, Jellyfish Highway (what’s up Justin!), Birds of Lace, 7×7—which looks slick, a zine called Tinkypuss, and more. That zine will also run a workshop that day.
Read all about it at the Georgia Review website. RSVP at Facebook.
